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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Custer (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Custer. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Custer is located in Whatcom County.

To see how the shape of Washington's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Whatcom County: Okanogan, San Juan & Skagit.

Below are the counties that are near Custer. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Custer:

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Custer, see our County-by-County Page for Custer.

Cemeteries Near Custer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Custer.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Custer covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Custer had a population of 45 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.

  • Haynie
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Haynie have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haynie
    • Haynie is located in Whatcom County
  • Birch Bay
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Mountain View
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mountain View have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
    • Mountain View is located in Whatcom County
  • Hillsdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hillsdale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillsdale
    • Hillsdale is located in Whatcom County
  • Delta
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Delta. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
    • Delta is located in Whatcom County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Delta
    • From Custer to Delta
  • Brennan
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brennan have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brennan
    • Brennan is located in Whatcom County
  • Blaine
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Semiahmoo ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Semiahmoo have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Semiahmoo
    • Semiahmoo is located in Whatcom County
  • Lummi
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Laurel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Laurel have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel
    • Laurel is located in Whatcom County
  • Lynden
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Marietta
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Marietta. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marietta
    • Marietta is located in Whatcom County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Marietta
    • From Custer to Marietta
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Van Wyck
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Van Wyck have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Van Wyck
      • Van Wyck is located in Whatcom County
    • Bellingham
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Wahl
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wahl have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahl
      • Wahl is located in Whatcom County

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Custer. See our List of 1890's Communities around Custer.

Newspapers Published in Custer ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 73 newspapers that have been published in the area around Custer.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Custer, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Custer.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Custer:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Custer. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Whatcom County: www.co.whatcom.wa.us/

The official website for State of Washington: https://wa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Custer, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Custer) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Custer. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.9179, Longitude: -122.6410    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025